This invention relates to a rear part structure of a vehicle, for hinging a rear door to a groove that is formed at a joint between a roof panel and a side panel of a vehicle body.
Recreational vehicles or RVs, such as minivans and station wagons, usually have a hatchback-type rear door with a hinge structure allowing the rear door to open upwards in order to facilitate loading into the rear deck of the vehicle. A rear part structure of a vehicle in which a hinge for use in joining a rear door to a vehicle body is provided at a so-called mohican groove so as to ensure that the door frame may be designed to provide a door opening of an increased vertical dimension is known in the art; for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,698 B2, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Such a rear part structure of a vehicle is shown in FIG. 6 in which a principal portion thereof with a rear door lifted open is illustrated in perspective.
As shown in FIG. 6, a groove 130 which is rectangular in cross section and formed at a joint between a roof panel 110 and a side panel 120 of a vehicle body 100 is located in a roof portion 101 of the vehicle body 100 (in an upper exterior surface of the vehicle) and thus called “mohican groove”, which may be embodied for example by providing a side panel 120 made in a shape curved in an inward direction of the vehicle toward its top end so that an upper area of an outer surface of the side panel 120 near the top end at which the side panel is joined with the roof panel faces generally upward. At a rear-end bottom portion 131 (an area of a bottom surface near a rear end) of the groove 130 is provided a hinge 200 configured to support a rear door 300 in a manner that permits the rear door 300 to swing relative to the vehicle body 100. The groove 130 is covered with a roof molding 600 and a cover member 700. The roof molding 600 is made of synthetic rubber, and the cover member 700 is made of plastic (resin). The cover member 700 is configured to abut on the roof molding 600 and to cover the rear-end bottom portion 131 of the groove 130.
The hinge 200 is comprised of a hinge base part 210 to be fixed on the bottom surface of the groove 130, a door hinge part 220 to be fixed to the rear door 300, and a hinge pin 230 configured to join the door hinge part 220 with the hinge base part 210 in a manner that permits the door hinge part 220 to swing on the pin 230 relative to the hinge base part 210. The hinge 200 is provided in pair at the upper right and left corners of the door frame defining a door opening 103 formed at a rear part 102 of the vehicle body 100, and configured to support the rear door 300 in a manner that permits the rear door 300 to be swung up and down so that the rear door 300 can be lifted open and lowered to a close position.
The hinge base part 210 is formed by a presswork which includes stamping sheet metal and bending a stamped-out piece into a part generally L-shaped as viewed from the rear of the vehicle. The hinge base part 210 is thus comprised of an anchor portion 211 and a coupling portion 212 raised upright from one side of the anchor portion 211. The anchor portion 211 is a portion to be fixed on the bottom surface of the groove 130 by means of two fastenings 400. The coupling portion 212 has a shaft-bearing hole through which the hinge pin 230 is to be inserted, so that the door hinge part 220 is coupled with the coupling portion 212 and swingably supported by the hinge pin 230. The hinge base part 210 is a portion which withstands a load applied when the rear door 300 is opened or closed, and thus should be formed by bending a relatively thick flat plate member made of metal while its breadth indicated by reference character “a” should be made sufficiently wide.
The door hinge part 220 is a flat plate member stamped out from sheet metal, and is provided in pair at the upper right and left corners of the rear door 300. The door hinge part 220 is comprised of an anchor portion 221 and a coupling portion 222. The anchor portion 221 is a portion to be fixed to the rear door 300 by means of door fastening bolts 501. The coupling portion 222 has a shaft-bearing hole through which the hinge pin 230 is to be inserted, so that the door hinge part 220 is coupled with the coupling portion 212 of the hinge base part 210 and swingably supported by the hinge pin 230.
In this rear part structure of a vehicle, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,698 B2 and shown in FIG. 6, the hinge base part 210 that is made of a thick flat metal plate member bent in a shape like a letter L as viewed from the rear of the vehicle to enhance its rigidity is provided so as to prevent the hinge base part 210 from deforming due to the load applied when the rear door 300 is opened or closed. For this reason, the hinge base part 210 provided on the bottom surface of the groove 130 is designed to have a breadth “a” in the transverse direction of the vehicle wide enough to withstand the load. It is to be understood that the breadth “a” should also be increased as a result of increase in the thickness “b” of the coupling portion 212 of the hinge base portion 210.
With the result that the hinge base part 210 as described above is provided in the groove 130, the groove 130 is formed to have the rear-end bottom portion 131 of which a width in the transverse direction of the vehicle becomes gradually wider toward the rear to accommodate the hinge base part 210. Consequently, the roof molding 600 having a uniform width in the transverse direction of the vehicle is not suitable to cover the opening of the groove 130 along the whole length, particularly to cover the rear-end bottom portion 131. Therefore, the cover member 700 should be provided contiguously to the rear end of the uniform-width roof molding 600 to cover the rear-end bottom portion 131 of the groove 130.
As discussed above, in a configuration where the hinge 200 is provided in the groove 130 and two members (roof molding 600 and cover member 700) are thus required to cover the groove 130, the resultant increase in the number of parts and the number of assembly steps would disadvantageously increase the manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, in a configuration where the roof molding 600 and the cover member 700 are disposed over the groove 130, disadvantageously, the structure and shape of a joint portion at which these two members 600, 700 abut each other would become complicate, and the seam of the joint portion would be exposed so that the external appearance of the vehicle could be impaired.
It would thus be deemed desirable to provide a rear part structure of a vehicle in which a hinge for a rear door is provided in a groove and the groove is covered with a single member. The present invention has been made in an attempt to overcome the above disadvantages.
Illustrative, non-limiting embodiments of the present invention overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, the present invention is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment of the present invention may not overcome any of the problems described above.